The fashions of the day were enough to mask the growing mound of her abdomen adequately for the public, but attentive eyes and curious minds would see enough. Apparently, the adjustment to her attire was more inconvenient than she or Harrison had anticipated, but if the deliveries he had seen coming of late were any indication, she was adapting well enough.

He was only grateful she was not unwell in the mornings anymore, and her energy seemed more renewed than it had been for some time, although she had never turned fully indisposed or fretful. She had too much spirit for that, and even the slightest bit of fatigue irritated her.

The last few months had been rather comfortable between them, which was a change he’d been unprepared for. They had found a routine that suited both of them, with his visits to the mine and shipping companies, and her visiting tenants and managing the affairs of the house, and then meeting together for the evening meal. Emblyn was becoming a more frequent visitor, which delighted Harrison to no end, and nothing had ever been sweeter than to come home from his business to find her already there with Adelaide.

It was everything he had wanted from his wife when he had imagined it before his marriage, and now that it was a reality… it was somehow even sweeter, given the woman was Adelaide.

Adelaide.

She was becoming an ever-increasing distraction for him, and whatever reserve he’d ever hoped to attain in his life was almost daily tested. The waltz they had shared in the early morning hours at the Bodville wedding played in his mind almost nightly, making him painfully aware of the location of his wife’s rooms, which he had not visited since she had become with child. They’d both retreated to sleep after the wedding, somehow unable to speak of what they had experienced and hardly able to touch.

Apart from their hands.

Even now, if he considered that day, those moments, his fingers would splay as though they ached for the feel of hers.

And he would curse himself for not asking to stay with her, even if they only rested beside each other.

Regrets were not common for him, having developed a healthy acceptance of life and choices as they came, but in this…

Time would tell if it truly became a regret or simply a moment left unclaimed.

Nothing between them had come even close to approaching the power of that morning, and nothing on the horizon seemed so promising.